apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I hate those things with a passion... Seems that no matter what I do to keep the place clean, they show up out of nowhere.

Will it work for the little bugs crawling all over my container plants?

Even though I'm a vegan, I'm sorry to say--yes, I kill three kinds of bugs: (a) ants, (b) fruit flies, (c) particularly annoying in the ear at night mosquitoes.

I've had fruit fly invasions for many summers now, and I've used the method you show above, but it still took awhile to trap them all because they lay eggs all over the place (in your drains, for example.)

This summer I tried a new tactic: Wash fruit etc. right away when you get it home; and then hand slap the f-flies as soon as they appear, before they settle in and have babbies. So far this summer I haven't had a big invasion.

White wine also works using this method.

Miss Mabel, I'm with you on being vegan, yet still hating really persistent invaders. I'd have to say that fruit flys and roaches are pretty much the only things I'll kill.

I'm trying this technique as soon as I get home!

can anyone share why this works? Can they not find their way out? what if one of the little f'ers brings a map?

Fruit flies have a hard time getting out of reverse funnel shaped openings. They can't get out of soy sauce bottles either.

i'm really skeptical about this, but i have nothing to lose except for the flies who've invaded my fruit bowl

Fatica, your container plant bugs might be a symptom of watering too much: they have a lifespan of 5 days and their larvae need the water (if you water and watch the surface of the pooled water carefully, you might see the little grubs.) Let the soil dry out for a few days and the little brats should disappear.

a layer of sand on top of the soil of your container plants will prevent the flies from laying eggs. Down with flies!

my exterminator told me they can only fly side to side, not up and down. that's why they can't get out the narrow opening of the cone.

fyi, stretching a piece of saran wrap over the opening of a bottle and making a small hole with a knife also works to a degree.

I know that fruit flies love themselves some wine. I have noticed that if there are any around, and you leave a glass of wine out for even a few minutes, they dive right in and drown themselves. I wonder if this is how they die here, too?

ScienceandtheCity, I make my special drain fly punch every summer now, using sweet vermouth (they're particularly fond of the vintage carried by Trader Joe's), some water and a drop or two of dish detergent. Place it in a wine glass and leave it on the counter. Within days, most of the little buggers should be sunk to the bottom of the glass.

My fruit flies are super rugged.... I'm going to have to try some of these suggestions because apple cider vinegar doesn't seem to work anymore! I am trying the banana trap right now but will move on to wine or vermouth if needed. I am so sick of them and I love my summer fruit!

This trap works; I've been using it all summer. However, you do also need to get rid of the source - throw out old fruit outside of the house, and pour bleach down the drain (they like to lay eggs there).

I love it! Up until now, I would leave a little wine in a glass and slowly they would go it. I like that this traps them.

I use the cider vinegar/dish soap method which works great. Get a small plastic container and add a few glugs of cider vinegar and a couple drops of dish soap. Add water until you get a thick layer of soap foam. The flies are attracted to the vinegar, but get trapped in the foam. It works really well.

I've had success trapping fruitflies with the method that leee mentioned above... I put some wine in a shallow dish and then cover it tightly with saran wrap, but rather than using a knife and making one hole, I made a bunch of tiny holes all over the cover, just big enough for the flies to slip through. It worked like a charm!

Any tips on how to get rid of bigger flies? We've got some that are almost a "Horse Fly" size. They especially like to congregate in our porch areas waiting for us to open a door.

My problem seemed to be mostly with fruit flies on bananas. A surprisingly simple solution that works for me...rinsing the bananas well as soon as I get home from the store, paying particular attention to the ends and the area where they are attached to the bunch.

This would have been helpful a few years ago when I decided to construct a fruitfly contraption using string, a beer bong, a vase, orange juice, and aluminum foil....it actually worked but took a while to make!

While I think the cone with the RIP is fun, you don't really need it. Put a few tablespoons of apple cider and two drops of dish soap in a small bowl (I use a tiny glass bowl) and set it out. That's it. The surfactants in the dish soap ensure the fruit flies cannot fly back out. Wash it out when they die and that's it. Also, it helps to wash your fruit before putting it out (bananas are apparently the biggest culprit and who would think to wash bananas; I didn't but since I read about this saw a difference).

I went triple-dog lazy with my fruit fly trap. After one fly landed in my wine glass I stirred in some soap, covered the glass with a bit of foil and used a fork to make a lot of small holes in the foil.

I'd rather have finished the glass of wine, but the trap seems to be working spectacularly.

Even a few inches of wine in a standard wine bottle works - as I found out the unpleasant way last summer!

I don't like killing anything, but I salve my conscience by shaking the bottle regularly, to drown them so they don't swim for hours, struggling...

I went into an Amish Restaurant inside a huge barn where an auction was held. I spotted a baggie filled with water thumbtacked to the top of the doorway. When I asked why it was there, I was told it kept away flies.

I looked around while eating my meal and sure enough there wasn't a fly in sight. After finishing our meal and leaving the restaurant, we went back into the auction area and flies were everywhere.

Give it a try - it really works!

I'm finding little flies, that I'd swear are fruit flies, around my indoor plants, at the base, and by the millions. Would this work with them?

Fatica and Xieta - if the little buggers are preying on your plants they are most likely not fruit flies. Are the "flies" around your plants green by any chance? If so you have aphids. You should move your plants outside and buy some ladybugs at a local hardware store to get rid of them. If they are white they could be whiteflies although I don't know of a good natural remedy for those. Perhaps someone else can advise?

Hi ashbadger! No, they're not green. I got some safe-for-plants-and-pets-all-natural-pesticide, but to no avail. The little (insert word here) keep staying around!
First it was pantry moths (17 hand-killed in less than 48 hours, not bad) and now these flies... For a 2-months-old apartment, not so bad huh?
We're planning how we'll greet the rats and other plagues as they keep coming...


PS. Sorry for the dark humor... There are about 5 of them flying around my ficus benjamina.

xieta...

i think you may have a case of fungus gnats. they do love wet soil and breed their babies there, like mentioned above. i've had the WORST case of them off and on for months. putting out cups of vinegar/soap/wine will definitely help. but as far as i can tell, just letting your plants dry out and removing any dead leaves, etc. should improve your sitch. also, and this one's pretty gross, you can put a slice of raw potato on the soil to trick them into dropping the larvae on it instead of the soil. then toss it after a few days.

i've also read the sand thing works too.. just a layer on top of the soil.

good luck! they're the pits!

Anyone have a good way of getting rid of cupboard moths? I try to kill them as soon as I see them and have thrown away a ton of food that wasn't in tupperware type containers. But they still keep coming.

For fungus gnats, you can also make a cup of tobacco tea and water the soil with it. The tobacco kills the larvae.

Which says something about smoking.

I just used this treatment for two ivy plants I just purchased that brought uninvited guests with them. Anybody have a use for a pack of Pall Malls that is missing two cigarettes?

Thanks for the tips! Having a boyfriend who smokes (never at home, thankfully!) is going to be helpful for once. He rolls his own cigarrettes, so we have a tobacco bag in a drawer... waiting to be turned into a lethal weapon! I'll tell you how it works

i tried this method and it did not work. the method leee and designmuse mentioned works much, much better

Sweet pickle juice in a dish works too for fruit flies.

so, i just put out two small shallow glass dishes: one with apple cider vinegar, a drop of dish soap (method) and a little water to make it sudsy; the other with plain cider vinegar, covered with plastic wrap with many small holes poked into it.

the soapy one caught one within 15 seconds but other flies have landed on the rim and appear cautious when they realize the soap is there.

i think they can tell it's a trick! i'll repost with results of the experiment...

preliminary results:

(ps I took the wrap off the cider vinegar only container and added a third dish with some water, tiny amt of dish soap and a piece of over-ripe kiwi covered in plastic wrap)

after approx 1 hour:
cider vinegar dish soap made sudsy= 4 fruit flies trapped in suds, presumed dead

cider vinegar alone in open dish= 1 drowned fruit fly

kiwi water nonsudsy dish soap plastic wrap with small holes= 1 fruit fly munching happily on kiwi

HYPOTHESIS: sudsy vinegar might be the best trick! this will conclude the published portion of the experiment, thanks :)

Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana..
- Groucho Marx

Sorry, I just had to share it !!

i use the cling-wrap method, but instead, i fill a jar halfway with water and drop in a lemon wedge some sugar. works like a charm. i'm going to try using the funnel tonight.

For cupboard moths:

1. Whenever you get new pasta/rice/grain/seed of any type, stick it in the freezer for 24 hours just in case it has any eggs or larvae in it.

2. Check for the webby eggs and larvae in any containers you do have...even the tupperware stuff. Also, clear out and check your cupboards....they can set up nests/eggs anywhere (I got some in birdseed once and they laid eggs under my birdcage, ugh).

3. There are traps you can buy called Pantry Pest that are basically sticky traps with an attractant on it. They have one for moths.

It might take a while and some effort but you can eventually get rid of them! And if you can figure out how/what was infested in the first place, avoid buying from that store again, or use the freezer method to avoid reinfestation.